1. Filed of the Invention
The present invention relates to a rolling bearing and a rolling bearing assembly which is lubricated by a lubricant supplied from an oil filling device.
2. Related Art
Conventionally, as angular contact ball bearings which have an inner ring, an outer ring, balls as rolling elements which are disposed between those rings, and a cage for retaining the balls, so-called outer ring guiding type rolling bearings have been proposed in which the rotation of the cage is guided through sliding contact of one shoulder portion of the outer ring and an outer circumference of the cage (refer to JP-A-2004-347001).
On the other hand, there have been proposed rolling bearing assemblies which include an oil filling unit having a pump for discharging a lubricant into an interior of a rolling bearing and a tank for containing the lubricant oil for filling a required amount of lubricant as required, whereby the lubricant oil is filled into the interior of the rolling bearing intermittently by a minute amount from the oil filling unit (refer to JP-A-2004-108388).
In an angular contact ball bearing described in JP-A-2004-347001, in the event that the amount of lubricant that is applied in advance is small, a lubrication failure is produced at a sliding contact portion between a shoulder portion of an outer ring and an outer circumferential surface of a cage to thereby cause a problem that seizure occurs in the cage, whereas in the event the amount of lubricant so applied is more than required, extra lubricant flows out of the rolling bearing to thereby cause a problem that the lubricant is used wastefully. In addition, in a rolling bearing assembly disclosed in JP-A-2004-108388, there has been a fear that the aforesaid problems would occur in the event that such an outer ring guiding type angular contact ball bearing is used as a rolling bearing that is used therein.